There are a substantial number of products which are, or advantageously could be, produced in stick form. Cosmetic items, preformed bandages, etc. are examples. Chewing gum is another example of a stick product with which the invention is particularly useful, and it is this application for the invention which has been selected for detailed description herein.
Chewing gum is most commonly produced in the form of flat, rectangular sticks which are individually wrapped, bound in an encompassing paper outer wrapper, and arranged flat side against flat side in packs of five or more sticks. The pack is wrapped in a separate wrapper which is sealed to prevent evaporation of moisture and a "drying out" of the product. Removing the wrapping from individual sticks is not particularly difficult. It is, in fact, relatively easy to remove that wrapper with one hand, and the habitual gum chewer usually developes that ability quickly and easily.
Removal of the outer wrapper is not so easy. Ordinarily, that task requires two hands. It is common practice to arrange the outer wrapper so that one end section can be removed and thrown away. Most of the original outer package serves as a sheath in which the five sticks may be stored. That original outer wrapper is not a very desirable storage device. The first two of the five sticks are ordinarily sufficiently difficult to remove from the sheath so that two hands are required. Two sticks having been removed, the remaining three fit so losely within the sheath that they are likely to become separated from it.
While difficulty in removing the gum from the sheath occurs initially, and while subsequentially having to deal with loosened sticks of gum may not be a pressing problem, it can, however, ba a nuisance, and even dangerous. It can be dangerous, for example, if the habitual gum chewer attempts to provide himself with a stick of gum while driving an automobile. The need to use two hands to remove the initial sticks of gum from the sheath, or the need to look away from the road in an effort to locate a loosed stick, can have serious consequences.